Hospitals and breweries team up to make hand sanitizer
When its regular operations winding down at the end of the day, the pharmacy staff for Idaho Falls Community Hospital and Mountain View Hospital begins work making hand sanitizer.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus has lead to shortages of hand sanitizer on store shelves and for health care facilities. The Idaho Board of Pharmacy had relaxed restrictions for pharmacies throughout the state looking to make their own hand sanitizer.
The sanitizer is based on a three-ingredient formula approved by the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration: high-strength ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and glycerin. Hand sanitizer stronger than 60% alcohol is recommended by health officials to deal with the coronavirus and the pharmacy is making medical-grade version that is 80% alcohol.
"We've made versions for individual prescriptions before but never had to make it on this scale, enough to provide for our hospitals and other locations," staff pharmacist Gary Pullen said.
The pharmacy received a delivery of ethanol on Monday, the initial batch was finished on Tuesday and provided to staff throughout the hospital. With the glycerin and ethanol that has been supplied, the pharmacy can make at least 100 gallons of hand sanitizer by the end of the week.
That sanitizer will be provided in bulk to hospital staff that are running short, the Idaho Falls Fire Department and some of the schools doing meal deliveries. By the end of the week, hospital officials hope to have thousands of individual-sized bottles ready to give away for free to patients coming through the pharmacy.
"We want to use this opportunity we have to get this out to the community now, instead of having to wait on a list for future orders," said Whitney Cooley, director of pharmacy for both hospitals.
The hospitals have partnered with two local distilleries, Grand Teton Distillery in Driggs and Distilled Resources in Rigby, as a source of ethanol. Elevation Labs provided the hospitals with glycerin, which it usually use for its own sanitizers and skin products, and a machine to help produce it.
"The ethanol is made the same way, the only difference is the finishing product and what you're adding to it. When we make vodka we filter it and proof it by adding water to get it down to 40% alcohol," Grand Teton vice president Andrew Boczar said.
Boczar was the only one in Grand Teton's main office on Wednesday, fielding calls for the hand sanitizer and the spirits it is still making. The tasting room was closed to everyone except delivery drivers picking up liquor bottles— Boczar said that more than 80% of the room's normal in-person business comes from tourists to the nearby parks, most of which have closed for the time being.
Last week Grand Teton partnered with New West KnifeWorks, a kitchen and cutlery store in Wyoming, to provide thousands of free bottles of sanitizer to Teton Valley residents. Breweries around the country have started making similar switches to help address hand sanitizer shortages, from small businesses in Colorado to two Anheuser-Busch plants in California and New York.
"It all depends on the spread of the virus. We understand that we are a stopgap to fill the shortages but as long as there's a demand we can make it," said Justin Chipp, executive vice president for Distilled Resources.
Elevation Labs donated four kilos of glycerin to the hospital, enough to make more than 100 gallons of sanitizer. Wendy Lees, vice president of quality for Elevation Labs, said the lab was in touch with suppliers to try and make sure the lab would be able to continue receiving glycerin supplies as the demand increases.
The lab is able to make its own sanitizer on site, which it has already donated to at least one local hospice in Idaho Falls and plans to roll out further as the effects of the virus continue.